Video Games, Opinions, Thoughts, & Tomfoolery

Target has been taking preorders on games for a little while, but it’s not for every game, and it’s not widely known. Now, the company is starting up a new preorder program that is guaranteed to steal a few sales away from Gamestop. If you preoder the game with $1 down, Target will give you a $5 gift card to the store if you pick the game up within seven days of release. At Gamestop, you have to put $5 down, and then when you pick the game up they try to convince you to pay full price and to roll that $5 over to another preorder. If you say no, you then have to listen to every game that’s coming out in the next 16 years while they make sure that there’s not something that you want to preorder.

So the process seems pretty simple, and if you shop at Target anyway it’s just as convenient as going to Gamestop. Heck, Target even opens up earlier and closes later than Gamestop. It would be great if Target could somehow expand the system to include all games that they plan on carrying, as there is only a select list of titles right now that will be included in this promotion. My guess is that if this really takes off, we’ll see Target go after this much more aggressively. Either way, I know where I’m picking my Punch-Out!! from on release day.